THE

Lethal Weapon 4: A Review

We probably should have known better than to pay money and waste
time to see this turkey, because in one of the previous Lethal
Weapon series, the protagonists were repeatedly whining about "cop
killer bullets" which apparently had the mystical capability, when
fired from the ubiquitous 9 m/m Parabellum, of penetrating a half-inch
of steel plate. In that same movie we also learned that police
officers were commonly assassinated with these dangerous "cop killer"
bullets.
However, it was a hot day, the theater was air-conditioned, and we
are usually fans of Mel Gibson, a.k.a. "Mr. Braveheart."
Here are the "civics" lessons we learned from "Lethal Weapon 4":

1. NRA "spokesmen" routinely dress up in body armor and assault
people and property with automatic weapons and flame-throwers randomly
and for no apparent reason.

2. NRA spokesmen can be easily identified by their flame-
throwers, automatic weapons and full-body armor.

3. It is difficult or impossible for a police officer to shoot
someone wearing body armor and to hit him in the leg or other
extremity not covered by the armor, but it is easy for him to shoot
the valve off of a napalm-filled flame-thrower tank, and that doing so
is okay, no matter the consequences to people and property.

D. Keep your finger off the trigger until the weapon is aimed
at the target and you are ready to fire.

12. It is hip and cool to joke about shooting a friend, and to
point your gun at him and threaten to shoot him.

13. It's okay and hip for police officers who are irritated by
peoples' comments, to point their guns at the source of irritation,
even when there exists no threat whatsoever of violence.

14. A badge and a brandished gun are the things that reveal a
police officer's identity.

15. Police routinely proceed into a known hostile situation with
only a pistol and one magazine, and then, after utilizing "spray and
pray" techniques, are shocked when they run out of ammunition.

16. Only the police should have guns, no matter how irresponsible
their gun-handling.

17. Irresponsible gun-handling is okay for police officers.

18. It is okay and funny for police to make false accusations to
other policemen that someone is driving under the influence of
alcohol, even when they know such is not the case.

19. Destruction of private property -- eg., breaking large glass
windows -- by police officers investigating crimes is good and is
funny as long as it's the property of someone suspected of (but not
charged with) a crime.

20. Deliberately pulling a fire alarm and causing a panic, when
there is no fire, for the sole purpose of destroying private property
and harassing a suspect is hip and funny, and is apparently okay and
unpunished as long as you are a police officer. (Perhaps the makers
of the movie learned this trick from juvenile murderer Andrew Golden
of the Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, Arkansas massacre.)

21. It's okay and funny for police to break into a dentist's
office, to forcibly administer nitrous oxide to a suspect, and, at the
same time, to partake in breathing nitrous oxide themselves. (While
this may have been amusing when Inspector Clouseau did it, it doesn't
hold up in this context.)

22. It's okay (and funny) for the police to destroy millions of
dollars in property and to endanger hundreds of lives while chasing a
suspect in a car.

23. It's okay (and funny) for a police officer to Mirandize a
suspect by telling him that, if he can't afford an attorney, he only
has the right to a really lousy lawyer.

24. It is noble and good for police officers to belittle customs
agents for doing their job if the police officer disagrees with the
laws the customs agents are enforcing.

25. It is noble and good for police officers to aid and abet in
illegal immigration and smuggling of illegal immigrants if the police
officer disagrees with immigration laws as long as the police officer
is black, the immigrants are "minorities," and the police officer can
play the "race/slave" violin.

26. It is noble and admirable for a police officer to shelter
illegal aliens in his own house because they are both "minorities,"
and the fact that some of the sheltered illegal aliens were, as a
result of this illegal action, killed, is not the police officer's
fault.

27. It is noble and admirable for a police officer to cause his
house to be burned to the ground and his family and friends nearly
killed as a result of his breaking the law by harboring illegal aliens
in his house.

28. It's okay and hip for police officers to impregnate other
police officers, and for both of them to proceed to live together and
plan to bear the child outside of wedlock, and without any discussion
of marriage or of the future of their child.

29. When Mel Gibson, director, producer and star of "Braveheart,"
condemns the British practice of "sword control," imposed on Scotsmen,
such condemnation has no bearing on "gun control" imposed on
law-abiding Americans.

30. It is good to glorify violence while trashing the Bill of
Rights: the right to keep and bear arms; the right to be safe from
unreasonable search and seizure; the right to remain silent; the
right to competent counsel.

31. It is good to make lots of money as an actor depicting as
humorous unsafe, irresponsible and flamboyant gun-handling, and
multiple felonies by police officers, all the while attempting to sell
an anti-gun/anti-NRA message to the public. (After all, rabidly
anti-Second Amendment actors Sly Stallone, Michael Gross, Paul Newman
and others have made zillions of dollars brandishing guns and/or
glorifying the killing of hundreds of people on film with guns.)

Although we laughed at several points in the movie (Mel Gibson is
genuinely funny a couple of times, as is Chris Rock and Joe Pesci)
overall, on the scale of BB guns to .577 Nitro Expresses, we rate this
film as a .22 short and recommend that you boycott it.

The Libertarian Enterprise welcomes reviewers Mark and Tina Terry to
its virtual pages and encourages them to see more movies -- and write
about them!

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